


Let's Run  (Make a Great Escape)

by niamh_reads



Category: Iron Man - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Kidnapping, Pre-Avengers (2012), Pre-Iron Man 1, SHIELD Agent Clint Barton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-22 22:02:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23401099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niamh_reads/pseuds/niamh_reads
Summary: 19 year-old SHIELD agent Clint Barton meets 24 year-old Tony Stark for the first time while rescuing him from his kidnappers in Kiev.
Kudos: 20





	Let's Run  (Make a Great Escape)

**Author's Note:**

> Exactly as the summary says, a young Tony meets a younger Clint as he drives him perilously around the bends of a mountain, and Tony drives Clint around the proverbial bend in return.
> 
> Title from Wake Up - EDEN

“A Honda? That’s underwhelming. I was expecting a super-secret spy mobile.” 

Tony stood in front of the passenger door of the car, vague disappointment evident on his face. Clint rolled his eyes and slid into the driver’s seat before leaning over to open the passenger door from the inside.

“Get in.”

Tony would have stood a little longer for stubbornness’ sake were it not for his kidnappers who were sure to be pursuing them. Getting the door open and sitting in was an awkward process with his handcuffs still on. The young agent beside him tapped his finger on the steering wheel, the only sign of impatience in his otherwise impassive countenance. 

Clint drove about 30m/h above the speed limit on the mountain roads, taking each bend with only minimal decrease in speed. Where Clint seemed only slightly on edge, checking the rearview mirror for a tail every other minute, Tony was completely at ease, talking the other man’s ear off as if they were just two pals on a roadtrip. With the skills of one who had been trained extensively in anti-interrogation techniques, Clint ignored the ramblings and focused on the mission at hand: to retrieve the genius billionaire from the clutches of WACK- Weapons and Ammunition Co-op of Kiev. Clint didn’t even try to hide his snort when he read the organization’s name in the mission brief.

“Are you going to ignore me the entire time? You look a little like my dad when you do that. He would have you beat though, he held out ignoring me for 24 years.”

In the 20 or-so minutes since Clint had extracted Tony from his cell in the WACK compound and began their getaway, the genius had told Clint of his lavish but troubled childhood with a negligent father and more money than he knew what to do with, his early admission to MIT and the subsequent expulsion for hacking their security (“which was completely warranted, by the way, because it was so weak it was begging to be hacked so they could see the advantages of the security system that I developed using their resources”) and his current girlfriend Pamela, who he’s considering demoting to side-piece next week. Clint was exhausted. 

It seemed, however, that Tony had finally turned his attentions towards his rescuer, and was now determined to find out everything about the secretive secret agent.

“Come on, man, shouldn’t a prisoner at least know the name of their capturer-slash-rescuer?”

Clint glanced at the young man out of the corner of his eye, shifting his grip on the wheel before taking another bend at a nausea-inducing speed. Tony was thankful for his experience in road racing fast cars, which was the only reason he wasn’t throwing up into the Honda’s glove compartment right then.

“You’re not a prisoner.” 

“You hear the rattling of my handcuffs?” Tony held his wrists up for effect. “That’s the sound of me begging to differ.”

Clint shrugged, unconcerned about Tony’s opinion on his status. Clint’s orders were to bring the tech genius in to SHIELD, and he didn’t want to waste any time asking Tony nicely.  
It was some moments later when both men realised that the rattling wasn’t coming from Tony’s chains any more. The engine had started to make a worrying keening sound, like Tony’s first home-made microwave right before it exploded. This was a source of great concern for Tony, who insisted that Clint pull into the field beside them before they blew-up, while Clint argued that he would pull in once he found a spot that would give them some cover. That spot came two bends later in the form of a small forest on their left. Clint was already out of the car with the bonnet up by the time Tony got his seatbelt untangled from his handcuffs and tried to open the door, only to discover the childlock on it. 

“Not a prisoner my ass,” he grumbled.

Tony pulled down the window to stick his head out.

“I can fix it.”

Clint peered suspiciously over the bonnet at him. 

“What do you mean?”

“What do you mean what do I mean?! I’m a tech genius of course I can fix a car engine!” Tony was starting to get frustrated with this.  
Clint inclined his head in acquiescence and opened Tony’s door. 

“Exactly how useful are these handcuffs anyway? Haven’t you read the papers, agent? I’m damaged goods. Who’s to say I won’t just grab the wheel and kill us both? “

“You would never kill your own favourite person.”

“Keen deduction skills, Watson. I trust I don’t have to let you down easy that you’re not the favourite person here.”

“Nah don’t worry about it, Stark, my charms could never compete with that kind of narcissism.”

“There were charms there? I must have blinked.” Tony shoved past Clint to look into the engine, while Clint stayed watching, alert to every sign of movement around them. “Don’t you want to take a look? Was engineering not a part of your spy training?”

Clint’s patience with the man had finally worn thin

“Can you just fix it so I can get back to real missions instead of babysitting duty?”

The older man swung around with such speed he nearly unbalanced.

“Babysitting?! You’re like 19!”

“And you’re about as mature as a 10 year old.”

“Well we can’t all be stone-cold, battle-hardened SHIELD agents. Some of us have a personality.”

“An annoying one.”

Tony decided to take the mature road and ignore the younger agent’s childish response. He quickly became engrossed in fixing the engine, working efficiently even with the hindrance of the handcuffs. He nodded his head to some internal beat and started to relax slightly for the first time since his whole ordeal began. Fixing things always relaxed him. It was the one thing he knew he was good at.

Meanwhile Clint was gearing up to do the one thing he was good at - shooting people. Clint had his gun pointed towards the trees where he was sure he saw a glint a few seconds ago. His suspicions were confirmed as five enemy operatives seemed to glide out from the trees, all pointing much bigger guns than his at the two young men. Clint ducked behind the other side of the car, dragging Tony by his collar down with him. 

“Stay down,” he ordered the genius. 

Men shouted commands on their slow approach, but Clint nor Tony make out what they were saying. It’s not as if they were going to follow them anyway.

“You’re gonna leave me weaponless?!” 

“I’m a weapon,” replied Clint, before launching upwards to fire three shots off, ducking down again for safety then firing two more. The wave of shots from the other side ceased, and silence fell once again in the small woods. 

“Oh now who’s the narcissist?” muttered Tony, but the bite was lost in his weak tone. He was leaning back against the car, taking calming breaths with a sheen of sweat on his brow. Clint on the other hand was as steady as ever, with a gleam in his eye that wasn’t there before, Tony frowned, as if he was finally entertained. 

The agent stood scanning the landscape for any indication that there were more hostiles incoming when suddenly a metal chain wrapped around his neck. It was pulled taut and Clint’s eyes widened in panic as he gurgled. Shock wearing off, Clint kicked his heel back into his attacker’s shin, gripped the wrists either side of his neck and flipped his assailant over his back. Tony lay sprawled and groaning in front of him, the breath knocked out of his lungs upon impact with the ground.

“What the hell?!” Clint demanded angrily.

“You’re really good at this agent stuff,” Tony groaned again, “I was just testing you.”

Clint rubbed at his neck and moved around to assess the damage to the car. The wheels hadn’t been shot out, but there was damage to the passenger door and the back window was smashed. As shootouts go, it could have been a lot worse. When he finished his loop of the car, Tony was on his feet again, looking at the bodies that lay 20 metres ahead of him. 

“With the utmost reluctance to the thought of paying you a compliment, that was pretty impressive. One shot one kill for all five.”

Clint smirked at him. “I don’t miss.”

“Well you definitely miss the mark for modesty.” Tony was starting to gather himself and found his penchant for quick-witted quips exactly where he left it. 

“Have you ever seen the mark for modesty?” Clint retorted.

Interesting, Tony thought to himself, stone-cold Stacy can banter.

The two resumed their positions from before the failed attack. Clint took the opportunity to update Coulson with a sit rep, calling him as Clint was off comms for this mission. It wasn’t long before Tony had the engine in workable order and they were ready to hit the road again. He managed to convince Clint to take the handcuffs off, if he promised that he wouldn’t try to attack him again. The warning that Clint knew twelve different ways to kill him with those handcuffs was enough of a deterrent that Tony didn’t even consider another attack.

Once they were on the road again, travelling once more at breakneck speed, Tony decided that he and his agent had bonded enough while saving each other’s lives that they could at least know each other’s names.

“I know your name, Stark. And you didn’t save my life.”

“Debatable. But are you really going to deny me the courtesy of proper introductions, Agent Smith?”

At Clint’s side-eye he tried again.

“Agent Brown?” Clint quirked an eyebrow.

“I’m getting warmer!” Tony leaned forward excitedly.

“Agent Burns? Agent Buns!”

The following 15 minutes consisted of Tony guessing increasingly less-plausible names until Clint gave in with a sigh to cover his half grin.

“Agent Barton.”

“Ah! I was so close!”

“You were on Agent Build-a-Bear! That’s so cold it’s Moscow in winter cold.”

“Have you been?”

“To Moscow?”

“In winter.”

Clint nodded. “Three times. Three missions.”

“You’re 19, right?”

Clint nodded again, then flicked the button for the radio on and station-surfed until he heard ACDC over the airwaves. Tony leaned over to turn the volume almost all the way up, and began to shred an air guitar while Clint drummed animatedly on the steering wheel.

Shouting to be heard over the music, Tony asked his next question. “How long have you been working for SHIELD?”

Clint was still pounding out the beat on the wheel, moving his head with the music and feeling relaxed enough that he didn’t mind sharing some personal information with Stark.

“Since I was 17,” he shouted back.

“And your parents let you fly around the world willy-nilly, shooting soldiers and playing spies?” The song faded out.

“You’re not the only one with daddy issues, Stark. This is SHIELD. Everybody has issues.”

“Sorry, my self-obsession convinces me that I’m the only victim in a 10-mile radius. I should have known, you can practically smell the trauma case off Gun Boy.”

Clint barked out laugh and Tony was relieved that the other young man didn’t take offence at his joke, because that’s what it was, an honest to god joke. Tony didn’t have many friends at home or in college, because people didn’t tend to get his jokes. And a lot of the time, he admitted, his comments weren’t really meant to be funny. Agent Barton seems to get his jokes, and retaliate in kind. He thinks he could be friends with the young agent beside him.

As they pulled up to Kiev airport, Tony saw a man in a suit waiting for the two passengers beside a plane a lot smaller than the Stark private jet. Tony didn’t make a move yet, just looking out at the airport in the city where he had been kidnapped and rescued. He definitely wouldn’t be sad to leave it, he mused. He was broken from his reverie when his own door opened and Clint stuck his head in. 

“You ‘fraid of flying, posh boy?” Came the teasing grin.

Tony undid his seatbelt and pushed Clint out of his way to clamber out of the car.

“I’ve been flying in private jets since before you even saw your first 20 dollars.”

Tony headed up the stairs of the plane and smiled as heard Clint laughing behind him.Maybe, as bad as kidnapping had been, maybe he made a new friend out of it.  
Maybe it had been worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> It's been quite a while since my last story. If you enjoyed this, please leave a comment that would be great. Now that Ireland is shut down and I have no school for quite a while I'm hoping to write and upload more. I'd really like to hear what you thought of this story and whether I should do more. Thank you very much for reading. I appreciate it.  
> Slán  
> Niamhie


End file.
